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1816IIHF News from www.iifh.comTYPO3 - get.content.righthttp://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rssFri, 31 Jul 2015 11:59:00 +0200Multi-cultural week for teenshttp://www.iihf.com/channels1213/hdc/stories/news-singleview/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=8042
141 players, 42 countries, eight teams and eight stories141 players from more than half of all IIHF member nations, including many developing hockey nations, joined their delegation to Vierumäki. With each year alternating between boys and girls, this time it was the turn for 1998-born male players to go to the camp in Finland.

Although most of the programs are for adults in areas like coaching players, managing teams and hockey organizations, the players can’t be overlooked and form the liveliest part at the campus located between the Finnish cities of Lahti and Heinola.

Once the players landed in Helsinki and driven to Vierumäki, they were split from their delegation and assigned to the eight teams that are named after the different jersey colours and play in a tournament. For one week they lived, practised and played with players from the same age group from many different countries around the world in teams that are way more international than most if not all club teams.

IIHF.com spoke with eight players from eight different teams and eight different countries all around the world.

Team Red: Justin Cheng, Hong Kong

Justin Cheng comes from one of the smallest IIHF member nations by area, but that hasn’t prevented him from doing well at the tournament. In five games he had two goals and eight assists to lead Team Red in scoring.

“It’s great fun to be here. The games and practices are very fun,” Cheng said.

“I learn a lot here and I spend a good time with the teammates.”

More than seven million people live in Hong Kong, a former British colony that has become a special administrative region of China in 1997.

“Ice hockey is still developing in Hong Kong,” the forward said. “There are not many ice rinks and only one international size rink. Ice time in Hong Kong is very expensive.”

Being in Vierumäki with two big ice sheets in front of his dorm must feel unusual compared to the ice situation in the metropolis.

Cheng’s goal is to play better and better. And he hopes that the experience he gains in Finland will help him. And who knows, maybe one day he will play in the World Championship program.

After fulfilling the minimum participation standards, Hong Kong will stage a comeback and send a team to the 2014 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division III where the team will play Bulgaria, DPR Korea, host Luxembourg and the United Arab Emirates.

Team White: Liu Tiange, China

Also the Chinese mainland has players as well as adults for the various programs in Vierumäki. One of them is defenceman Liu Tiange, who has scored two goals in five games for his team.

“I like it here. It’s really helping me improve my skills by playing with other players from all around the world,” Tiange said. “Many of them are very good, better than me. They bring a good skill level to the tournament. It’s also getting me new friends and I learn more about hockey.”

“The most memorable day was the first day when we got all together and became a team.”

Ice hockey in China is most popular in the northern province of Heilongjiang. Most national team players are developed in the cities of Harbin and Qiqihar.

Tiange, however, is not from there but about from 1,200 kilometres southwest, living in the Chinese capital of Beijing.

“Ice hockey is more popular in Qiqihar and Harbin but it’s now developing in Beijing and also in Shanghai, and coaches are coming over from Harbin and Qiqihar,” Tiange said. “But in China there are still not so many athletes playing hockey compared to basketball, football, badminton or ping-pong. Playing hockey in China is like a family and you know the people who play hockey but you really want more people to join.”

China has 610 registered players, which looks small in comparison to the population of over 1.3 billion people. But there is potential and there are many rinks across the Middle Kingdom to make the ice hockey program bigger.

“I play hockey for fun and many of my friends are in my hockey team including Nie Haolin from the black team here,” Cheng said about his hockey life. “It takes away the stress from the daily routine and it makes fun. Hockey gives you a healthy way of life.”

Team Black: Hüseyin Seçer, Turkey

One country that has slightly more players than China but hasn’t climbed up the ladder that far yet is Turkey, where ice hockey is a newer and still growing sport.

Ice rinks have been built in several cities in the last few years including in Erzurum where the 2011 Winter Universiade took place. Only in the years leading up to the event did an ice hockey program start in the city in the mountainous east of the country. Hüseyin Seçer is among the first players. The defenceman and other players were taken from the street to a frozen pond and he immediately fell in love with the sport.

“I started when I was ten. We started to play hockey on a pond. Erzurum is Turkey’s ‘capital of the cold’ and hockey has become popular,” Seçer said.

Being picked for the camp in Vierumäki is kind of a Cinderella story for the young man, and considering that Turkey is in 40th place in the IIHF World Ranking, he adjusted pretty well and is one of the hopeful players for the future of Turkish hockey.

Seçer comes from a family with five sisters. He studies, plays hockey and also helps his father with work.

Being good at hockey gives him a different perspective since his family is not rich. Because of hockey he met many new people, saw many new cities in Turkey and now got to play in Finland’s top hockey centre.

“I will never forget this week. It’s wonderful. Whatever we need is here. The coaches and managers are very professional,” Seçer said. “I couldn’t imagine something like this and practising under such conditions. I meet many people from around the world. They are very friendly and help me a lot.”

The tournament also helps him understand where his level is internationally and in which areas he can improve.

“I want to be the best in hockey and go to the top. My dream is to go further and to play in Canada,” Seçer said. “I will reach my goals with hard work.”

Team Blue: Kwanyong Park, Korea

14-year-old forward Kwanyong Park from Korea is one of the noticeable players at the camp. In an age group with varying levels of physical development, Park is one of the shortest players. But that doesn’t prevent him from playing ice hockey and showing off some great skills.

With his friendly smile – especially when he showed a small Stanley Cup replica the team awarded to the hardest working player of each day – he’s the team darling.

The Seoul native hopes to make the U18 national team and wants to learn here. In Korea, hockey is pass, pass, shoot and goal, as he describes it, while he finds players and coaches with different styles here.

“I like the camp because it’s a lot of fun,” Park said. “The people are very kind and I make new friends. I learn a lot here.”

Park shows his skill with passion but in the back of his mind he has set his goals already one step further.

“My dream is to one day coach the Korean national team,” he said.

Team Green: Timothé Cachard, goalkeeper, France

While the focus is on the developing nations here, higher-level hockey nations also had the chance to send players. One of them is French goalkeeper Timothé Cachard.

While the overall skill level may be lower than playing in the French junior league with Grenoble where he comes from, he enjoys every moment.

“I like it a lot in Vierumäki. I profit a lot because playing here is different than what I’m used to in France and the guys here are friendly,” Cachard said.

He likes the challenge of being in an international environment although it can be tricky at times.

“You see here other players and other staff from different countries who I haven’t know before,” he said. “I and some others don’t speak English so well but we get along well.”

Coming from one of the French hockey towns, Cachard already started to play the sport at the age of six at a club near Grenoble.

“I want to play at the highest level I can reach,” he said while getting his first experiences playing and competing with players from other countries.

Team Yellow: Daniel Duffy, Ireland

Ireland may not seem the most exotic country having two traditional hockey nations – France and Great Britain – as its nearest neighbours. But the Irish Ice Hockey Association was only founded in 1996, two years before Daniel Duffy was born. And despite having roughly 300 players, the opportunities to practise the sport are limited due to the lack of available ice rinks.

“We haven’t got ice at the moment. We’re on rollerblades in the moment training in the halls,” Duffy said. “There’s meant to be two ice rinks being built in Dublin I think in November, then we can have ice time.”

But the Irish are fighters and they battle hard for hockey, whether it’s the two players, the two coaches or the two administrators who came here to learn and work for a better future of the sport in Ireland.

“It’s a great experience to come here, it’s going great with the team,” Duffy said.

“The camp is a real eye-opener because the standard of hockey in Ireland is very low. It’s just great to learn from a lot of people from different countries.”

The forward of the Dublin Ducks needed some time to adjust. The lack of playing and ice skating opportunities certainly didn’t help his development. But Duffy gives it all and tries to make up for it with his fighting spirit after coming back from a small injury at the first off-ice practice.

“I learned how to check,” he said about the biggest improvement he did. And as a true fighter he loves to check. He’s said to get at least one hit in each shift. And despite the regular ice rink issues in the countries he doesn’t give up his dream of a career in the sport he loves.

“I want to become better and better and finally become a professional ice hockey player,” he said.

Team Teal: Dominyk Bogdziul, Lithuania

Many of the most skilful forwards come from bigger hockey countries here while Dominyk Bogdziul hails from a rather unusual place for hockey.

Bogdziul, who notched seven goals and ten assists in five games, was born in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius. While the most famous players from the country come from the small hockey town of Elektrenai – including Dainius Zubrus and Darius Kasparaitis – he and his four years older brother and national team player Daniel belong to a generation of players from hockey programs in other cities.

“I was four years old when I started to play ice hockey. My grandmother brought me to the ice rink,” he remembered.

Same as his brother he left his hometown to continue his development a few kilometres across the border in the Latvian city of Liepaja.

“The first practice on the ice and off the ice here in Vierumäki was most memorable for me,” he said.

“It’s very beautiful here and there are very good guys from other countries on my team. It helps me for my level of play and skills.”

While he doesn’t know yet where the path will lead him, his goal is for now to improve and come to a good level in a good country.

Team Maroon: Harrison Macharg, forward, New Zealand

Coming basically from the other end of the world compared to Vierumäki, Harrison Macharg is among the camp participants who travelled the longest to Finland. But for the forward it’s been a rewarding experience.

“I like it much here. When we came together on the first day there was a language barrier but now even if there’s still a language barrier we get along and are good friends,” the Queenstown native said.

“The hockey is great to see. There are some of the best players of your age in the world here, and learning new stuff from the coaches is a great experience.”

Macharg started to play hockey because of his brother when he was five or six years old. He feels he improved his game here and more improvement is to come by the end of this camp before he heads back to New Zealand where it’s high-season right now for ice hockey.

“I hope to get better and go back to my country and teach others who play hockey there,” he said.

In New Zealand, ranked 35th in the world, becoming a professional ice hockey player is not yet an option and also for Macharg it’s more about having fun.

“I’m not going to go to any pro league but I want to use it to have fun and make friends all around the world,” he said. “I want to keep ice hockey taking me around the world. It has already got me to a few countries and I want to keep it doing like that.”

MARTIN MERK

]]>on topIIHF07 FranceLithuaniaHong KongChinaKoreaTurkeyNew ZealandIrelandSat, 13 Jul 2013 14:44:00 +0200When is a shot a shot?http://www.iihf.com/channels1213/hdc/stories/news-singleview/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=8041
Stats gurus from around the world improve their programAnd behind the wall is the room where the result managers assemble to improve their program. It’s a room with several tables filled with laptops and cables while papers cover the walls with handwritten notes about statistical definitions, topics and assignments.

The program is usually not part of the Hockey Development Camp. Last time it was run was five years ago. Not any class of players can enjoy this kind of detailed statistical coverage at the camp like this year on the stats board or online but the main purposes are others.

“It was time to do it since we have had many new people over the years and many didn’t know each other. We have result managers from countries that are further away like Australia, Japan, South Africa or Turkey who can profit from seeing how it’s run at a larger scale,” said IIHF Sport Data Manager Andy Ecker.

The crew runs statistics on a large scale at the camp, with a full setup like at the 2013 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Stockholm and Helsinki. That means including resource-intensive figures such as shots, face-offs or time on ice.

“This gives our result managers from all around the world the chance to get to the same level since we run most tournaments with a smaller setup than at our flagship event,” Ecker said.

And same as for coaches and team managers, it’s an educational process where the participants can learn without the pressure of dozens of TV stations, hundreds of journalists and thousands of fans following the game online.

17 participants from 16 countries made it all the way to Vierumäki. In total the network of IIHF Result Managers contains of 24 persons.

It’s a pool of men and women who are sent to the various events around the world and who are responsible for the statistics on-site as representatives of the IIHF Sport Department. They go there and work with local statistics staff from the organizer like operators and spotters, give them the necessary instructions and education and check the technical infrastructure with the host.

The result managers have knowledge both in hockey and in statistics. They are computer-savvy and some of them have professional IT background.

Often they are close to a national ice hockey association or a club and can use their knowledge they gain with the IIHF also within their country.

They don’t work full-time for the IIHF but take time off from work for tournament assignments.

“We rotate the staff here so everybody sees everything and gets a feeling for the different tasks,” Ecker said.

Training and educating is one important purpose to have the result managers here, another is to bring in new ideas and find suggestions to improve the system.

Another important goal is working on statistical regulations.

“It’s a document where we define standards that can be used by our associations, leagues, clubs, coaches, players and fans who are interested in stats,” Ecker said.

Also volunteers working in the stats area in events, whether international or national, shall profit from the document. It’s the goal to compile questions and find the appropriate answers. Stay tuned on IIHF.com if you’re interested in this document that will be released later.

“It’s about how exactly do we define things like shots, time on ice or who is the game-winning goalkeeper if there’s a goalkeeper change,” Ecker said. “We had brainstorming sessions about things like that and try to put everything on paper to clarify such topics.”

One such example is the definition of a shot.

A post shot is neither a shot nor a save for a goalie while it’s a missed shot for the shooter. And a shot that is blocked by the goalie must be intended to qualify as a shot and consequently as a save. That means that for example a loose puck saved by the goalkeeper’s stick doesn’t count as a shot or save at IIHF events.

The IIHF also captures players on ice on power play goals in its game reports to offer this information to the public but these goals don’t count in the +/- stats.

At the same time the group is also working on a more internal guide for the result managers about the work and duties before, during and after the tournaments.

The participants were split in two groups who were trained here and who worked at the documents for a few days each and met altogether during one overlapping day. The second group will travel home on Sunday together with the participants of the other programs run in Vierumäki.

MARTIN MERK]]>on topIIHF2013 Camp HDCon topon lefton righton rightSat, 13 Jul 2013 07:57:00 +0200Teaching the teachershttp://www.iihf.com/channels1213/hdc/stories/news-singleview/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=8040
55 Learn to Play Program instructors ready for the youngestThis program targets instructors who teach hockey to children under the age of 10. It is split in two parts: LTP1 with the slogan “Make It Happen” with focus on recruitment, on basics and starting a program and it is followed by LTP2 with the slogan “Be World Leading” for the next age group and taking the program a step forward to make it world-class.

The Learn to Play Program is run for the tenth year while it’s the second time the LTP2 is offered.

The instructors of the two groups have had class-room sessions every day. They learn about athletes’ development, teaching skills and team play, organizing practices, recruiting players, about equipment, goalkeeper-specific coaching, how to communicate with the boys and girls and how to be a leader and mentor for the youngest players.

As we entered the room, one of the mentors, Johan Bollue from Belgium, talked about recruitment and simple measures to make their clubs known even with little or no money, such as presence and promotion at the ice rink, organizing second-hand equipment markets, having a website and preparing material for journalists.

Then a representative from Bauer, one of the manufacturers that are part of the IIHF’s Supplier Pool, came in and had the opportunity to talk about hockey equipment, to show how to wear it correctly and to answer questions from participants, who then had the chance to have a look at the hockey gear.

“The Learn to Play Program is for training the coaches or coach leaders in different countries to run the Learn to Play Programs for young children under the age of 10,” said Kevin McLaughlin from the United States, same as Bollue one of the IIHF Development and Coaching Committee members present at the camp.

“It talks about how to structure a practice, how to run a recruitment program, how to organize coaches, practices and a season that’s very age-appropriate for kids of five- to ten-year-olds. The most important thing is to make hockey age-specific for these children.”

McLaughlin and the mentors work together with people from many nations at very different levels of hockey development.

“It’s challenging and also exciting and fun to have people from so many countries. There’s a lot of experience and knowledge from the different people where hockey is growing,” McLaughlin said.

From the class room it went to the ice, to work within the group and later during the day with daily ice sessions with 140 local kids between the age of five and ten that joined the program that’s supported by ŠKODA, the long-time official main sponsor of the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship.

That’s when the instructors were able to practise what they’ve learned and test their skills – especially those who hadn’t had this experience before. After the sessions it went right back to the class rooms for a video session and feedback from the other students and the mentors.

Children between the age of five and ten get hockey lessons from international students. Photo: Toni Pylvänäinen

“I like the program very much,” said Sakchai Jinanuwattana from Thailand. “I come from officiating and was in an officiating program at the camp once but this time it’s different. I’ve watched kids play many years and have knowledge as a player but now I see a different perspective from people who really know how to coach kids from the beginning.”

“Back in in Thailand, I will have a meeting with all the coaches that are interested in what I learn here because I’m the only coach participating from Thailand. I will talk to them how we can improve hockey in our country.”

Thailand is one of the newer and faster growing hockey markets in Asia. The national association climbed up the ladder in the IIHF Challenge Cup of Asia and tries to improve to one day make the World Championship program.

“We are slowly developing our hockey. We don’t have so many players but recently we had more kids playing hockey than ever before, but they usually start at six or seven,” Jinanuwattana said.

“Now we have over 100 kids under 13 or 14 years old. We have more interest than before which is good. Most kids play in the Bangkok region where we have a couple of rinks and very soon we will have some smaller ice skating sheets in the north and north-east of the country where we can have children’s and recreational hockey.”

The ambitious program in Vierumäki doesn’t give the participants too much time to check out the lakes or saunas here in Finland, but it will certainly give them a full backpack of skills and new material when they go back to their countries and help fellow instructors and become mentors themselves.

One country even had its premiere. Elzar Bolotbekov and Mirlan Dyikanbayev were the first representatives from Kyrgyzstan to take part in a Hockey Development Camp and they were split in the LTP1 and LTP2 programs.

“It’s our first experience in IIHF activities. Our country became member just two years ago and we are happy to take part in such a useful and important activity. We want to learn here as much as possible that we can spread what we learn in our republic,” said Dyikanbayev.

“Our ice hockey federation was created recently but in this short time we have reached much and won the Premier Division of the Asian Winter Games so we want to set ambitious targets for the future.”

Elzar Bolotbekov and Mirlan Dyikanbayev are the first Kyrgyz to take part in an IIHF Hockey Development Camp. Photo: Martin Merk

Among the instructors there are several women. Among them is Inese Geca-Miljone, who brings with her vast international experience. The 35-year-old represented Latvia in the Women’s World Championship program for the first time in 1995 and most recently last April when she played for the first time on the national team together with her daughter, Liga Miljone, who was the scoring leader of her team as a 16-year-old.

While her daughter will move to Swedish top team MODO Örnsköldsvik for next season, Inese Geca-Miljone is not sure yet whether she will continue to play next season. What she certainly knows is that she wants to help the next generation of hockey players after having played for 23 years.

“I like this program. I was here already as a coach of a girls’ team at the 2012 IIHF Hockey Development Camp,” she said. “I’m interested in the Learn to Play Program because I’m coaching boys and girls at the Hockey School Riga and I profit a lot here.”

“So many people have so much dedication to get this program going in their countries,” McLaughlin said. “Some of them translated it through their resources or universities to other languages to make it available in their own countries.”

If you want more information on the Learn to Play Program you can find resources as printable PDFs here.

Also material of the Recruitment Program is available for use in several languages.

“The hockey is based on the Recruitment Program and the type of entry programs they run to make kids interested and keep them interested in the sport where maybe hockey is not a traditional sport,” McLaughlin said.

“It’s about making it exciting and creating passion for the kids to play hockey. We have to compete with other sports and we want hockey to be the most fun and most attractive sport so when the kids play they get hooked.”

MARTIN MERK

Group photo of the local children and the instructors of the IIHF Learn to Play Program at the 2013 IIHF Hockey Development Camp. Photo: Toni Pylvänäinen]]>on topIIHFWorldsWomen20 United States12 LatviaBelgiumThailandKyrgyzstan2013 Camp HDCFri, 12 Jul 2013 09:00:00 +0200Launching a new careerhttp://www.iihf.com/channels1213/hdc/stories/news-singleview/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=8039
Former Ukrainian national goalie takes on team manager tasksSimchuk, who played at the highest level at various World Championships, the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, in the top Russian league and in the ‘90s also in the IHL that was at the same level as today’s AHL, finished his career with his hometown team Sokil Kyiv after the 2011/2012 season.

In 2012/2013 he worked for the same club as a sport director.

“But then two goalies were injured, we didn’t want to put the juniors into the fire during the playoffs, so I put the gear on and played three games,” Simchuk said.

“I had just practised four times before that during the season and that was with the veteran team. It was hard. I almost lost my heart in the first game!”

He did considerably well with a 93.0 save percentage and a 1.80 goals against average though. But now he continues to work on his post-playing career path.

Simchuk takes part in the Team Manager Development Program here at Vierumäki but he doesn’t hide his interest for goalie coaching. He sometimes takes a spontaneous look into that program’s room during his free time and asks how things are going. After all, the veteran of 18 professional seasons just conducted a goalie camp in Ukraine recently.

“It’s a great camp for athletes and staff,” the 39-year-old said about the week-long 2013 IIHF Hockey Development Camp in Vierumäki. “We have mentors here from top countries that have so much experience in hockey. Everything is very interesting for me.”

Looking back at his lengthy career, Simchuk doesn’t have any regrets and he remembers all the steps he took like it was yesterday. Like being on a team with other 1974-born players before the break-up of the Soviet Union, players that would become famous stars in Russia.

“As a junior of 14 or 15 I played on various USSR national teams with players like Valeri Bure, Sergei Gonchar, Sergei Brylin or Andrei Nazarov, who’s doing a great job as a coach in the KHL,” he said.

He stayed with Sokil Kyiv that continued to play in the Russian top league in the first years of independence before leaving his country at age 23 to play in North America with minor-league teams. After four years he went back to Europe and played eight years in the top Russian league for Spartak Moscow, Salavat Yulayev Ufa, Sibir Novosibirsk, Metallurg Magnitogorsk, MVD Balashikha and CSKA Moscow. At the end of his career he again donned the jersey of Sokil Kyiv for three full seasons.

“Every step of my career was interesting. I worked with major organizations like Metallurg Magnitogorsk in Russia, or I went to camps of the Nashville Predators and the Phoenix Coyotes. That was a very interesting step when it comes to elevating the competition level,” Simchuk said.

But the best memories were from when he wore the yellow-and-blue jersey of the Ukrainian national team.

“Every World Championship in the top division and the Olympic Games, every time when I was representing the country that just gained independence few years earlier, was an exciting moment of my life,” he said.

From 2001 to 2006 he played every time in the top division of the Worlds as well as in the Salt Lake City Olympics where the team finished in tenth place. The same year at the World Championship in Sweden, he backstopped Ukraine to a record-high ninth-place finish. Ukraine tied Russia 3-3 and only missed the quarter-finals on goal difference.

For Simchuk, two memories stick out.

“The first one was 2001 in Germany. I played in my first World Championship game against Sweden. We lost 5-0, but they had like 60-65 shots,” he said. “That’s a game I will always remember.”

The other was the 2005 IIHF World Championship in Austria.

“It was a great event. So many NHL stars came due to the lockout. I played all six games and was dead tired but we had some of the best games that our national team ever played,” Simchuk recalled.

“We tied the United States 1-1 and lost to Canada 2-1. It was 1-1 until four minutes before the end of the game when Rick Nash scored. This kind of moments you remember your whole life.”

He missed the 2007 Worlds, the last top division event for Ukraine which got relegated that year in Moscow, but he returned to represent the national team at Division I level from 2009 to 2011.

Konstantin Simchuk’s last official game with the national team was in his home arena in Kyiv at the 2011 IIHF World Championship Division I Group B with the Ukrainian national team against Kazakhstan. Photo: Pavlo Kubanov

But this week is not about reminiscing about his past. The Vierumäki camp is part of his future after one year as a sport director at club level.

“I had my job with Sokil and decided to keep going,” Simchuk said about his decision to get education as a team manager here in Vierumäki, “but I also have fun working as a coach or goalie coach.”

His future is still open as is the future of his club. The owners haven’t decided about the upcoming season and he doesn’t know what will happen with the team.

“I prepare myself for everything, everything is interesting for me. It depends what offers I will get. If the national federation wants me to work with national teams I’d love to do so,” he said.

“I collected experience during my career from the coaches I’ve worked with. I worked with some great coaches,” Simchuk said.

He calls Dave King one of the most interesting coaches. They met when they both were with Metallurg Magnitigorsk in Russia.

“Back in Kyiv, Dave Lewis brought a lot to the national team. He tried to teach something to everybody around him. He made an amazing job,” he added.

“Also with many Russian coaches I had interesting experiences. They are different from international coaches, but they’re all very authentic and know hockey very well.”

Working here in Vierumäki in the classroom and also practically as the manager of Team Yellow, nicknamed the “Yellow Submarine” here, is something different than what he did with Sokil Kyiv or at goalie camps, but he appreciates to learn new things.

“It’s different when you work with a whole team with many different things you do as a team manager but I feel comfortable with all the tasks. It’s a great experience for me,” he said.

“It was good that I learned English when I played in the United States and when I don’t know a word here, I just write it down and search it on the internet. There are many interesting things which I noted down and that I will take back to Ukraine.”

MARTIN MERK]]>on topIIHFWorldsMenClub2013 Camp HDCon topUkraineon righton leftThu, 11 Jul 2013 10:59:00 +0200Hockey and sciencehttp://www.iihf.com/channels1213/hdc/stories/news-singleview/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=8037
Stephen R. Norris talks about long-term athlete developmentPh.D. Stephen R. Norris, a British sports and physiology scientist who has been living in Calgary for over 20 years, is Vice-President Sport at WinSport Canada, also known as the Canadian Winter Sport Institute. He impressed the crowd with a scientific approach tailor-made for the hockey audience.

Click here to watch his full presentation. (100 min.)

“The biology, how we develop especially in the first two decades of life, hasn’t changed over the years,” Norris started.

What has changed are other factors like that kids do less sports than they did let’s say 30 years ago. Recruiting kids for a sport, especially one with limited playing grounds like ice hockey, is therefore a bigger challenge than it used to be even in a traditional hockey country like Canada.

The whole reason for his presentation is raising the standard as he formulated it.

“It’s to try to get the coaches to be critical thinkers also when it comes to their own program. It’s about how they can work to improve the quality of the training minute and get to the level of execution at a competition they would expect,” Norris said.

IIHF.com picked out some key topics from the presentation.

Kids are changing

“Youngsters are constantly changing. You don’t deal with something that’s stable,” Norris said. And he illustrated this with a timeline of the kids’ development.

The neural development curve already comes close to its peak around eight to ten years of age. The conclusion is that kids need to be stimulated especially at an early age when the brain capacity grows the fastest.

The hormonal curve, however, goes up exponentially around the age of 14 or 15, especially for males. With the presence of testosterone they can lay down more muscles.

All combined he sees a rapid growth in the first few years of life and then again a rapid growth in the adolescence.

Also the growth rate of the body itself is changing. It slows down in absolute numbers after birth and becomes stable, and then the rate goes up again around 9-13 for females who reach the adult height around 18, and around 11-16 for males who reach the adult height around 20. But during the period of faster growth rates bones are more vulnerable and loading forces challenge the skeletal system.

“The age from 4 to 10 is the most important period to learn the basics of movement and of a particular sport,” Norris said while the age from 10 to 17 is the period of biggest destruction with different growth spurts.

That’s also when body-checking is usually introduced – a topic that’s been in the news lately after Hockey Canada, and earlier USA Hockey, banned body-checking in peewee (U12) games, same as it has been the case in many European countries. The age has moved up but it’s still in age groups with big differences in size between kids that exist just as a matter of fact of growth and maturation.

“No matter at what age you introduce things like body-checking you see a rise in the injury rate the next year,” Norris said. “It’s not fully resolved but at least having the discussion and publicity makes us thinking about it.”

A conclusion that can definitely be drawn is that coaching kids and teenagers can have very different demands on coaches depending on the age group.

“The coach of every age group can be a world-leading coach. And when you put them at the professional level he may be not,” Norris said, “but there’s nothing bad about that. It’s to be applauded to be an expert in a certain area.”

Don’t get fooled by size

This period of the teenage years is not always an easy one, neither for ambitious kids, nor for coaches or parents.

“There are big dropout rates in this period also because kids don’t have enough patience within their hockey program. The champions of these age groups are usually not the champions in senior hockey,” Norris said.

What he means is that prospects may not win titles because they mature later or because their local team is not strong enough. That doesn’t mean that the player can’t become a good player. On the other hand top junior players may be good because they mature early but that doesn’t mean they will also be top players in adult hockey when others catch up.

“It’s a very difficult time for age-group coaches. That’s why it is the most difficult job. In that age the façade of athletes may become adult but in the brain they can still be kids,” he said.

And vice versa.

“Maybe the short kid who’s behind in his physical development may become the better player even if he’s not that good in his age group. You need to be encouraging and work on all things,” Norris said.

It’s an area of conflict in hockey programs between the ambition of developing individuals in an optimal way and simply performing well game by game – or between long-term and short-term thinking.

Kids want to have fun

Doing what’s in the best interests of the kids is a slogan that came up in the presentation every now and then. But what is the best? People may have different thoughts and values about that. For Norris it’s clear that the fun factor has to be central.

“It’s interesting that the Americans with their Athletes Development Model have a phrase ‘let’s kids be kids’. It’s an important one to remember,” he said.

“It shows that the number-one reason for staying in hockey for Canadian kids is fun and the number-one reason given for not staying in hockey is not having fun.

“We must be interested in every kid. You only have little time to work with the kids, so you need to use it as quality time.”

Outpunch your weight and don’t stop improving

If you want to be successful, you have to outpunch your weight and work more efficiently than others. That’s how smaller nations can manage to compete against the Goliaths of the hockey world.

“In Canada too many kids stop at some point. In relative numbers there’s a town in Sweden that outperforms Ontario, and California outperforms Massachusetts, something that’s very much discussed in the U.S.,” Norris said.

He illustrates sports with sand castles. At some point you may have the biggest and most beautiful one. But if you don’t move, somebody else might capitalize on one’s stagnation and build a better one.

Norris also mentioned the Japanese Kaizen principle of constant improvement.

“You constantly need to move your program forward otherwise others will set new standards,” he said. “This is what sport is all about.”

All-round learning

Norris splits the components that develop an athlete in mainly five components: technical, tactical, physical, psychological and lifestyle.

To reach the potential, a player must work on all aspects. Norris criticizes that too often the focus is mainly on the physical element.

“They want to have the size, power and strength, but they also need to be able to receive the puck and conserve the momentum. They need to skate and make the right moves on the ice,” Norris explained. Learning decision-making processes is important as well.

“Even at highest levels there are players who look clumsy when they’re under pressure.”

Then he talked about weddings and funerals. About where you like to be invited to and what’s depressing. What he means in hockey terms is that players do things they’re good at and they love to do much more than working on their weaknesses by doing work they don’t appreciate or that is difficult for them.

That’s why players and coaches need to be stimulated and have courage, Norris concluded.

Practice vs. Competition

Until the age of 15, hockey players have more unorganized games and play other sports, after that age they play more organized games and have more deliberate practice.

But the ratio between practice and games varies a lot between programs and countries.

“In Canadian peewee hockey kids can be happy if they get one practice per two games,” Norris said. The opposite he could observe in the Soviet Union with two to three practices per game.

Although games are often perceived as the fun part, it’s not necessarily the part players develop most.

“During a game kids play maybe 15 minutes and have the puck for a few seconds,” Norris said.

He criticized that the games have changed in a way that watching children play has become entertainment for the adults.

“At times we lose the focus why we do age-group sports. What is the purpose for that? It’s about the kids. Learning things, having fun, progressing. And give those who have the desire and the capability to pursue higher levels that opportunity,” Norris said.

“Everyone should improve. If we don’t give people the chance to practise, how do you expect them to improve? If we don’t understand the role of play, unstructured practice if you like, then we don’t understand what it is to be a child.”

It’s also a field of differences between cultures especially for somebody like Norris, who has studied the methods from North America to Western Europe to the former Soviet Union.

“In general I’m typically more encouraged by what I see in Europe and Scandinavia than what I see in North America. North American kids’ sport has become very big business,” Norris said and criticized the too big focus on competition.

“The pressure is always on and they try to do things faster and faster, younger and younger, and more expensively, and usually around a competition focus,” he said.

“There’s nothing wrong with competitions understanding when and how much is appropriate for the ages. There’s not one right answer, it’s a bit of a blend.”

Relative age effect

Many more players are born in the first months of a year in the Canadian Junior League than in the last few months.

“People are focused on winning in the short term in junior hockey so they select predominately large people and kids born earlier in the year on average have a better chance than kids born later,” Norris explained.

In the NHL the distribution is even bigger. 56 per cent of the players according to an older study were born in the first three months of the year.

You can do the study wherever you want. One from Switzerland showed the same effect as did the original studies about the so-called relative age effect from schooling systems.

The trend may seem explainable, even natural. But in the end it means that due to the desire of winning junior games, players born some months later in an age category may not get the same chance. An attitude that should change if the focus is on long-term player development.

“Lots of talent gets lost in junior years because of this effect,” Norris said.

MARTIN MERK]]>on topIIHF03 Canada2013 Camp HDCon topon lefton lefton rightTue, 09 Jul 2013 10:23:00 +0200How to run an associationhttp://www.iihf.com/channels1213/hdc/stories/news-singleview/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=8034
New administration program here to support membersWhile players, coaches and officials have usually been the main focus, those working behind the scenes will also get their share in Vierumäki, Finland, this week. Managers, secretaries, organizers and other people from the IIHF member national associations and clubs convened for the one-week Administrator’s Education Program.

In total 16 men and 12 women are present to follow the interactive sessions in groups and workshops led by Paul Carson, Vice President of Hockey Development with Hockey Canada.

“We targeted associations that need support in everything from building a capacity as administrators to improving the capacity of coaches and coach development programs,” Carson said.

“Everything that we’re doing this week with associations is to put them in a better position to serve themselves in an efficient way and to take full advantage of the resources that are available to them internationally and to ensure they have good strategies to operate and to grow.”

The participants are here to learn but also to exchange experiences about their challenges and how to address them despite different backgrounds.

When the different groups presented their needs, Miren Meyerson Uriarte from Spain represented a group that also included participants from Bulgaria and Mexico. One situation they share is that there’s not much room for hockey in their respective countries behind one dominant sport, football.

“Our challenge is to promote ice hockey to the public and schools,” she said. “We want to develop our program, learn from others and improve our situation in ice facilities and government support.”

Jos Lejeune from Belgium underlined what many are here for: networking and to understand how the different national associations solve problems and respond to challenges. Orsolya Mercz from Hungary meanwhile talked about how to structure an organization and distribute tasks and job responsibilities while Kadri Akkerman from Estonia wants to collect best practices. And that’s what will be done in a manual by the end of the week.

Issues also include the way hockey is presented in some countries.

“Marketing is an important point. We need to make sure that TV doesn’t just show big hits and fighting from the NHL”, said Kari Berg Rogstad from Norway. “This kind of image of the game is a problem for us in recruiting new players, especially girls.”

Carson describes his group of 28 people as very enthusiastic with a very broad range of challenges

“What we’re trying to show in the end is that the challenges are very similar in nations and often there are similar strategies that will help solve a number of those challenges and it’s important to get those on the table of the groups,” he said.

“First the participants need to feel at ease that their problems are not unique and I think a lot of the associations know that. In creating this network of individuals they can work with each other through relationships that evolve and share best practices and support one and another to get through challenges.”

Lithuania is even represented by two people. The organization, that originally was founded to build up a recreational league that eventually multiplied the number of senior club teams in the country from four to 21, took over all national and international hockey operations just some months ago after the bankruptcy of the former Lithuanian Ice Hockey Association.

This new body will organize the 2014 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group B in its capital of Vilnius.

“We are new people and for us it’s very important to have good relationships in the European hockey family,” said Vaclovas Gedvilas. “In Lithuania we haven’t had many IIHF tournaments and organizing the World Championship Division I Group B will be a great challenge for us.”

The program includes people from a big variety and levels in international hockey.

“We started to improve in the technical and development areas and now we want to improve our administrative system,” said Ferhat Tözünler from Turkey. “This program is very good for our federation.”

“We want to take a step forward in things like budgeting, dealing with the authorities but also with the minimum participation standards and building up a hockey culture in Turkey.”

Carson filled the representatives from smaller hockey nations with confidence that hockey can grow with time. Even in a hockey country like Canada studies showed that it takes three generations until a family with immigration background takes on hockey.

Apart from having ice rinks, the ice availability is a problem in some countries. While Carson estimated the rent for an hour in rural Canada at €50 per hour, it can be much higher in countries with fewer capacities and privately-owned rinks that are financed by public skating.

Kin Ng reported about hourly prices of €1,100 in Hong Kong. The number can even be up to €2,000 during peak hours at the biggest ice rink. Situations like this can be challenging for clubs and hockey bodies. Ng also hopes to learn more about how to work with clubs and how to have a good influence on them.

“There are many good ideas from the IIHF but how do we do them in practice with limited capacities?” Sharon Fisher from South Africa pointed out.

Making sure that the representatives know about possibilities like the national association assistance program is one of the goals of this week.

Jukka Tiikkaja presented the program of the HAAGA-HELIA University of Applied Sciences and the possibility of student placements within countries of IIHF member national associations for support through the Development Program.

Students from the program in Vierumäki have had hockey-related placements with national associations and clubs in 21 different countries all around the world in Europe, North and Latin America, Asia, the Middle East and even as far as South Africa and Australia.

“I think one of the most important parts is that the end of the camp is not the end. Because we created this network of individuals and we’re going to show them some strategies for sharing information,” Carson said.

“It’s quite conceivable that they will maintain these relationships beyond the camp to support one another. It’s conceivable that we could identify students to work specifically with associations who have projects they would like to do.”

The goal at the end of the camp is to work with any of the associations in the administration program to piece together an application for national assistance.

“The goal is that they would be able to identify a project, that they would be able to frame the project in terms of what the goals were, how to measure the success of the project, what the costs of the project would be and we would support them,” Carson said.

“My feeling is that we should see a number of groups put together a plan of that nature. If two or three associations were to put an application together for national assistance funding they would be able to create for example an administrators’ training program for clubs.”

And like that pass on what they’ve learned to their own members.

MARTIN MERK]]>on topIIHF03 CanadaBelgiumSpainHungaryEstoniaLithuania13 NorwayHong KongMon, 08 Jul 2013 10:01:00 +0200Biggest camp everhttp://www.iihf.com/channels1213/hdc/stories/news-singleview/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=8033
IIHF takes new approach in development“Make it happen” is the slogan. The participants come to learn, but also to bring lessons home and impact their program.

IIHF.com talked with IIHF Sport Director Dave Fitzpatrick before the weeklong camp in Vierumäki, a two-hour journey from the Finnish capital of Helsinki. The camp runs until next weekend.

What is the purpose of the IIHF Hockey Development Camp?

First of all it’s a leadership camp. It’s intended to help develop leaders inside of the national associations. This year’s camp is going to be different from previous programs because it’s targeted development where we identified the needs through the audit strengths and weaknesses of each association.

What we’ve done is targeting special projects for each country and they’re invited to participate in certain programs. During the camp we will run 11 different programs along with eight team programs, so there’s a lot going on simultaneously.

The idea of the leadership program is to develop the people who return home so they’re not only familiar with the project or skills or tasks but that they have practically done it here so they can do it at home as a group and build a network. So when they go home, there’s a support system and also a period of trials to practise it, rehearse it and work with other people.

Can you tell us more about the targeted development approach?

This is the first year we’ve taken a targeted approach to this. It’s not just a camp where you show up and take part in whatever you think may fit. Now we based our decisions in what we know and not in what we think we know.

We can target a program for an association, identify the people that will be there and work through a very specific program. We then help them design a program so when they return home there’s a focus, there’s a definite need that’s being addressed on which they can work within the association and the IIHF can help them co-fund that so they can run it domestically.

And depending on the timing we can also look at placing a student there on a long or short-term commitment. It’s co-ordinating all the information we have to give the associations a firm footing to start a program and provide some funding and possibly people to help operate it in the form of students.

In the end the IIHF doesn’t run teams. That happens in the nations. But we’re here to help.

What role did the audits play that were run in the last few years?

Everything what we’ve gained is through the audit. It’s relatively recent data. 63 countries have been audited. The information is quite extensive. Things do change in every year, I agree on that, but for most part the bigger issues don’t change. The areas where an association is strong continue to be strong and the areas an association is weak at continue to be weak. We can address these weaknesses much easier by knowing the associations better.

What forms of education will the participants get?

We divided it up in all the programs. They cover the range of areas that we have to work on by lots of associations. 53 countries show up. We’re about 480 people altogether with everything going on. We’ve targeted the associations with certain people to come and participate in certain programs.

The programs are based on a mentor-and-participant relationship. Participants are working with a group of IIHF people assigned to work on those skills and give the information to the recipient. The recipients from the national associations are there, invited by the IIHF for a particular purpose.

The idea is not only to identify the problem, or the concerns or needs but to identify people inside the country, bring them to the camp and educate them or begin to educate them.

When they leave they have a full dossier of what to do and how to do it. When they return home, the plan is that they introduce it to the association, and we as the IIHF will help them design a program that they run domestically and we will help fund it to make it actually work and then we evaluate it and monitor it.

So they will kind of introduce the program at national level with what they’ve learned.

It could be anything. We specifically try to target leadership development, recruitment programming, goalkeeping, skating, coach recruitment and education, officiating recruitment, training and monitoring of the instructors, looking at long-term athlete development and also administration. How to organize and administrate an organization, that’s brand-new this year.

The programs and issues have been identified through the audit so it is current and specific for each of our member national associations. Everyone is different.

From what regions do the participants come from?

They come from all over the world, from five continents. 53 of our national associations will show up at the camp.

What we tried to do is to identify not particular players, coaches or participants from the bigger countries. They’re more in the leadership and instruction areas. The smaller nations are invited to be more on the leadership development side.

Most of the bigger nations have had good programs in place for a while. So we use those people who have been instructors for a while to teach the smaller developing nations that they too have a resource person, and that they through the classroom activities as well as on-ice activities build a network of people who are in a similar situation.

In which areas do most of the participants normally work?

The biggest program will be the Learn to Play Program with about 70 participants. You need to build the bottom up. We know that in all our associations in the youngest ages the numbers are dwindling, so we have to address that. But we’re also looking at coach development, in instruction techniques. We’re looking at how to manage associations. These are some of the bigger programs.

Coach education is huge too. What we’ve tried to do is identify the coach education component and looking at long-term athlete development so it’s realistic, so you can follow an athlete and look at how you can develop a player over a long term through coaching. It’s addressing a need that has been there for a long time but putting a more formalized structure around it and targeting specific people.

Can you tell us something about the camp site in Vierumäki?

It’s unique. The number-one thing is that it has students and that’s very important for us. To drive a lot of the programs in many of the developing nations can be a challenge because they don’t have the manpower. The whole strategy is to get them with their student placement in Vierumäki to do this placement in certain countries that we have worked with and help them operate these programs we’re helping to design. So there’s a delivery mechanism we’re trying to put there.

The site itself has got all the facilities there. It’s a summer camp. The sun basically never sets. It’s a full-day program. The ice facility has two ice sheets and more than enough dressing rooms. We can use them not only for the teams but also for other programs and the instructors. We also have a classroom setup, athletic fields outside and when there’s bad weather there’s a huge covered gymnasium, a dome as we call it. We can use all the floor there if needed. There’s plenty of classrooms all over the site. The accommodation is all set up in a way of dormitories. There are cafeterias and places where they can go and work as a team for education in a very relaxed setting. There’s a medical service. All this adds up to a complete facility that is very adaptable and ready for a complete program.

There are also players coming. After the women’s camp last year it will be boys born in 1998 from many countries this time. What will their role be and what can they expect?

We know across the board that at a certain age there’s a drop-out rate. And there’s a lot of good players that are in the system. The associations show to these players that they believe in them. These are players that have leadership qualities. That’s one of the big criteria points. When the athletes come there they’re not only there to learn. They will improve a little bit during the week but not dramatically. Their job is really to act as a team with the other athletes to become part of the other leadership programs we work with. There are athletes but the emphasis is more on the instructors.

During the camp they’re good role models that are selected to be there as leaders but also to pass this information along to their fellow players. When the athlete returns home they’re definitely a spokesperson. But what the associations have done is show confidence in the particular athletes to send them somewhere and hope they’ll stay a little bit longer involved in the game in the mid-teens when there are other opportunities as well.

Additionally, we will have about 140 six- to eight-year olds from the region for the Learn to Play Program and about 70 instructors.